Power Company Controls AC

[clemsonfor]

Let the EPA allow more hydroelectric power plants...... thats the ticket. I pay $0.06/kwh with NO peak times or other nonsense. There is enough science now days to allow fish ladders, etc to ease the environmental impact. Hydro is the best green energy source but govt regs have strangled it.

Its not just fish or reduced water flow, there is the less silt reaching down stream, this has ill effects im places like the mississippi where silt wont replace the mississippi delta. Dont get me wrong im not against it but fish are not the only thing. Plus there is the eminant domain thing to aquire the land. Trust me i work for a federal lake project with many generators (big for the SE) and i still hear about "taking the land" back in the 40's and 50's.

 

[clemsonfor]

This was my initial understanding, but I was wrong. They measured your usage from 11 am to noon and gave you half of that. So if your air conditioner ran for 15 on and 15 off from 11am to noon, then they would only allow it to run 7.5 on and 22.5 minutes off from noon to 4 pm.

Yep this sounds like a disaster and cant work? Reason i say this is that i live in SC like i said. The wife and i both work, we have a programable t-stat. AC comes on for about a hour in the am about 6:30 to 7:30 on and off. The t-stat sets back to 80 at 8:am. It then cuts back to 76 about 4:00pm. And even though here in the summer it can be 90 by 9 am or 9:30, cause my house is cool the AC might not even come back on till like 12 or 1pm cause its like 74 in the house at 8am and it slowly warms in the day. I would not have AC in the afternoon ever except the hottest of hot days!! That is unless after 4pm it dosent matter what you use?

 

[grsthegreat]

There are not any big sites left. Small sites take the same effort. Also as you said the government and private citizens will stop anything. I guess when the rolling blackouts start we will start doing something.

Rolling blackouts wont happen to my system....just not the demand of the larger cities. If you really want to effect a change, dont go after homeowner a/c units, go after parking lot lighting, car lot lighting, big box store lighting (though there improving). Think about the loss of KWH in a large parking lot with 30 - 40+ lights each with 1-4 heads using 400 - 1000 watts per head. and sometimes burning all night (sometimes all day) long

 

[clemsonfor]

Rolling blackouts wont happen to my system....just not the demand of the larger cities. If you really want to effect a change, dont go after homeowner a/c units, go after parking lot lighting, car lot lighting, big box store lighting (though there improving). Think about the loss of KWH in a large parking lot with 30 - 40+ lights each with 1-4 heads using 400 - 1000 watts per head. and sometimes burning all night (sometimes all day) long

Or think of all the offices with floresent lighting. They can reduce bulbs in halls and put 35 instead of 40 watt tubes in and no one will notice the difference. The few that "say " they do have them put an efficient desk lamp on the desk.

There are plenty of places to cut. Those giant gas stations that are lit up like daylight! another example, if they just cut back a bit there is a huge savings.

 

[grsthegreat]

Or think of all the offices with floresent lighting. They can reduce bulbs in halls and put 35 instead of 40 watt tubes in and no one will notice the difference. The few that "say " they do have them put an efficient desk lamp on the desk.

There are plenty of places to cut. Those giant gas stations that are lit up like daylight! another example, if they just cut back a bit there is a huge savings.

Yup, but lets not rile businesses, lets go after the little guy. Calif makes all personal vehicles get smog checks and all commercial trucks to have the newer diesel engines.....but they exempted all State owner vehicles from complying. So the buses still belch out black smoke. Same mind set..lets regulate everyone else cept for ourselves.

 

[BobRip]

Rolling blackouts wont happen to my system....just not the demand of the larger cities. If you really want to effect a change, dont go after homeowner a/c units, go after parking lot lighting, car lot lighting, big box store lighting (though there improving). Think about the loss of KWH in a large parking lot with 30 - 40+ lights each with 1-4 heads using 400 - 1000 watts per head. and sometimes burning all night (sometimes all day) long

These are all during non peak times. I agree a lot of it is a waste, but the only thing you can do here is fix the lights that are running during the day and use more efficient bulbs. That will help some of course. Actually power companies love night lighting since it adds to their load when they have plenty of capacity.

 

[clemsonfor]

These are all during non peak times. I agree a lot of it is a waste, but the only thing you can do here is fix the lights that are running during the day and use more efficient bulbs. That will help some of course. Actually power companies love night lighting since it adds to their load when they have plenty of capacity.

And there is another problem esp for places with no storage or ways to throttle back production.

The reason why the hyro project i work at only produces at peak times, there is no way to store it!

 

[MicroPilot]

Or think of all the offices with floresent lighting. They can reduce bulbs in halls and put 35 instead of 40 watt tubes in and no one will notice the difference. The few that "say " they do have them put an efficient desk lamp on the desk.

There are plenty of places to cut. Those giant gas stations that are lit up like daylight! another example, if they just cut back a bit there is a huge savings.

I once worked in an office and had removed the bulbs in the fluorescent lights above my cube. I didn't like the harsh bright light. I had an inspector for OSHA come in and tell me that I didn't have enough light in my area, even though I had a desk lamp for reading. I had to replace the bulbs for a week while he was on site and then took them out again when I couldn't stand the bright light anymore.

 

[clemsonfor]

I have the building contractor come by about once a year or more and tell me i have a bad tube im my office. I have a privite office about 8ft x 12ft. Most of the time i never know that one is flickering as there is enough light. I also have a desk light its still a floresent tube say 16 or 18 inches. Some mournings its on when i come in (forgot to turn it out) an i may sit there an hour with out main lights on till someone says something or i flip them, its just easier on your eyes. And at my desk i can see fine. Now if im on the other side rummaging in a file cabinet yes i need the overheads but i see no need for the super bight lights that seems "standar".

 

[jonyyuma]

We had the" Cycle and save" program here several years ago.It did make the bills a little lower and we did not notice that much of a problem. It seems to be in how it was used and when applied? It was phased out after a couple years and the controls removed.

 

[TRR]

As for the parking lot lights being reduced or turned off to save electricity - everything is a trade off. If you reduce the electricity consumed in parking lot lighting you can qualify for LEED (Green energy stuff) but you increase the risk of crime because of the darker parking lots.

 

[clemsonfor]

As for the parking lot lights being reduced or turned off to save electricity - everything is a trade off. If you reduce the electricity consumed in parking lot lighting you can qualify for LEED (Green energy stuff) but you increase the risk of crime because of the darker parking lots.

I didnt say dark or totally off. There is not much difference if they reduce every bulb by 10 watts, if you have 10 lights in a lot that are on 10 hours a day that is 1Kw a night saved. Yes at 10 cents an hour thats not much savings per night. You wont notice the difference in light so no safety risk. And this is assuming a lot with 10 lights, they would save 10cents a night or $3.00 month, now think of walmart with god knows how many lights or your bilo or food lion or what ever?

 

[grsthegreat]

I didnt say dark or totally off. There is not much difference if they reduce every bulb by 10 watts, if you have 10 lights in a lot that are on 10 hours a day that is 1Kw a night saved. Yes at 10 cents an hour thats not much savings per night. You wont notice the difference in light so no safety risk. And this is assuming a lot with 10 lights, they would save 10cents a night or $3.00 month, now think of walmart with god knows how many lights or your bilo or food lion or what ever?

If spralmarts were required to use LED lot lighting, each standard would have 4 lights running 52 watts each (x4) as opposed to the current 400 watts (HID) each x 4 per standard.

Thats 208 watts vs 1600 watts. Less light, but not by much. savings about $50/month at 10 cents per kwh and 12 hours of use. These lots easily have 50 of these lights (supercenters) = $2,500/month savings. But they dont do it....and the new wall mart here leaves their lot lit 24/7...dont know why.

 

[Ken]

If spralmarts were required to use LED lot lighting, each standard would have 4 lights running 52 watts each (x4) as opposed to the current 400 watts (HID) each x 4 per standard.

Thats 208 watts vs 1600 watts. Less light, but not by much. savings about $50/month at 10 cents per kwh and 12 hours of use. These lots easily have 50 of these lights (supercenters) = $2,500/month savings. But they dont do it....and the new wall mart here leaves their lot lit 24/7...dont know why.

Have noticed Wal-Mart new stores have sky light to help light the store areas. Also in Mt.View Ark. W-M a new store if no one in isle the over head lights dim to one bulb. then with a motion the lights come on before person enters area.
ken

 

[grsthegreat]

Have noticed Wal-Mart new stores have sky light to help light the store areas. Also in Mt.View Ark. W-M a new store if no one in isle the over head lights dim to one bulb. then with a motion the lights come on before person enters area.
ken

hmm, dont have those here..i can see why no skylights due to the snow, but no dimmers. There is a system that shuts off 1/3 of the lights during peak times indoors, but their parking lots are always lit

 

[BobRip]

A lot of outdoor lites send a lot of the lite up. This is a total waste.

 

[creekbend]

It was just announced yesterday that Duke Energy here in NC wants to increase the monthly rates to residential users by 17%. There will be a 15% increase to commercial customers. Dude Energy bought out FPL-Florida Power Light. several years back. We belong to Piedmont Electric which is a CO-OP, but as we all know power companies sell electric power to each other at various times, and it's usually the largest power companies that propose increases to the regulatory commission. I wonder if we should expect rate increases in the future. By the way, we were offered a similar plan last year in regards to the power control during certain hours, but we turned them down.

 

[dmccarty]

It was just announced yesterday that Duke Energy here in NC wants to increase the monthly rates to residential users by 17%. There will be a 15% increase to commercial customers. Dude Energy bought out FPL-Florida Power Light. several years back. We belong to Piedmont Electric which is a CO-OP, but as we all know power companies sell electric power to each other at various times, and it's usually the largest power companies that propose increases to the regulatory commission. I wonder if we should expect rate increases in the future. By the way, we were offered a similar plan last year in regards to the power control during certain hours, but we turned them down.

CPL merged with FPL creating Progress Energy. Now Progress and Duke want to merge.

Part of the price increase is to pay for the packages to the people who will be laid off. If the two companies think that it makes money sense to merge then they should eat the short term decrease in profit to get the long term profit.

Certainly the consumer should not have to pay for the merger...

On the other hand a coal power power plant in my county is shutting down soon to comply with EPA regulations. There was a report in the WSJ yesterday about the Federal agency responsible of power production that is not speaking up about how the EPA regulations is going to decrease the limited surplus of power production and how this might effect the stability of the power grid.

With the shutdown of the local coal fired plant, the power will have to be made up somewhere or else. Coal is the cheapest power producer so rates will have to go up to replace this plant and one or two others that Progress is having to shut down.

Progress sends us a note about letting them control our AC. I do not like the idea and for the pittance they pay us for the trouble it is not worth it.

Later,
Dan

 

[JerryK]

I am on the Great Lakes Energy grid, I have a Marathon electric water heater and get $4.50USD off each month for letting them install 'line controled' power to it. The main reason electric companies up here want to control power loads is for power resoration. If they loose power over a large area, it allows them to bring the full load up in stages and not try to run everyone's AC/water heaters/well pumps/etc. all at once. The starting load for all A/C motors alone would be a tax on what the system is designed for on certain days of the year. The control box has a contactor in it, with a built in timer, that normally waits 5 minutes before it applies power to the water heater after power loss, or can be controled 'over the line' if needed. We also have 'over the line' meters that can be monitored and read by them.

 

[creekbend]

CPL merged with FPL creating Progress Energy. Now Progress and Duke want to merge.

Part of the price increase is to pay for the packages to the people who will be laid off. If the two companies think that it makes money sense to merge then they should eat the short term decrease in profit to get the long term profit.

Certainly the consumer should not have to pay for the merger...

On the other hand a coal power power plant in my county is shutting down soon to comply with EPA regulations. There was a report in the WSJ yesterday about the Federal agency responsible of power production that is not speaking up about how the EPA regulations is going to decrease the limited surplus of power production and how this might effect the stability of the power grid.

With the shutdown of the local coal fired plant, the power will have to be made up somewhere or else. Coal is the cheapest power producer so rates will have to go up to replace this plant and one or two others that Progress is having to shut down.

Progress sends us a note about letting them control our AC. I do not like the idea and for the pittance they pay us for the trouble it is not worth it.

Later,
Dan

Thanks for the additional input. I remember seeing Duke Energy power trucks in Bradenton, Florida working with FPL crews. When our power was restored in 2006 after a storm, the only power company trucks and equipment that I saw in Bradenton and Sarasota all had Duke Power on the trucks. I asked one crew in the parking lot of the Desoto Mall in regards to seeing all their equipment in the surrounding Counties and they told me that their parent company bought FPL. The crew were probably telling me about possible future acquisitions. You are correct about the impending acquisition. If it goes through, the web said that it will be the largest in the US because of all the companies that these two Companies own presently. Sometimes two heads are better than one, and working together, we can get all the info. By the way dmccarty, upon further investigation, I discovered that BOA was a main stockholder. There were so many banks listed as stockholders that I quit reading the entire list. The same goes for all the other energy companies that the two companies currently own. The two companies are really huge. Thanks again for the additional info. I'm in Yanceyville. Where are you located?